Portable jail



Patented Nov. 8, I898. A

No. mp0s w. s KING. PORTABLE JAIL. (Application filed Jan. 6, 1898.1

(No-Model.)

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W-. 8.. KING. PORTABLE JAIL.

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Paiented Nov. 8, I898.

W. 3. KING. PORTABLE JAIL. (Application filed Jan. 6,-189 8.)

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(No Model.)

S S S E w W Patented Nov. 8, 1898. W. 8. KING.

PORTABLE JAIL.

' (Application filed Ian. 6, 1898.)

4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

(N0 Model.)

A TTOHNEYS" UNITED STATES WILEY SCARBOROUGH KING, OF

PATENT OFFICE.

DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.

PORTABLE JAIL.

srnor'monr'ron formin part of Letters Patent No. 614,008, dated November 8, 1898.

Application filed January 6, 1898. Serial No. 6653826. (No model.) I I To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILEY SCARBOROUGH KING, a citizen of the United States, residing at Darlington, in the county of Darlington and State of South Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Portable Jails, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

My invention is an improvement in jails, seeking to provide a portable jail which may be used for the safe keeping of prisoners in transit; but it is especially designed for use in place of barracks or stockades at night for keeping convicts, such as chain-gangs, who in some sections of the country are employed in road construction and the like, which necessitates their absence over night from the established stockades or barracks, myinvention providing a portable barracks or jail in which they may be safely kept over night and in which, if necessary, they may be transported from place to place without guard.

My invention consists in certain novel constructions and combinations of parts,as will be hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of my improved portable jail. Fig. 2 is a crosss'ection thereof on about line 2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic plan view of the apparatus. Fig. 4 is a rear end view of the j ail; Fig. 5 is a detail cros -section on about line 5 5, Fig. 4, showing the lapped staple-plates and the lock securing the same together; and Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view showing the hook and loop plate which engages the\ same. Figs. 7 and 8 show, respectively, the roof and floor construction in detail.

In carrying out my invention I provide a portable jail mounted on wheels and provided with barred inclosing walls and with series of bunks, affording means whereby the prisoners are safely inclosed and also furnished with v sleeping accommodations.

It may be preferred in some instances to make the jail in detachable sections, so it may be conveniently shipped or stored, and my invention includes such features as will be hereinafter more fully described; but it will be understood that the invention may be carried out in a construction in which the sections of the jail are permanently united.

As shown, the jail is formed with a floor A, the opposite sides B, the front end-O, and the rear end D, the latter being provided with a suitable doorway and with a door at, the roof E extending over the sides and ends, as shown. The several inclosing walls are barred, preferably, by means of the interlaced slatted construction shown, the bars F of which are united together at each crossing by means of a rivet f, thus preventing any spreading of the slats and strengthening the barred construction at every joint. This barred construction is extended throughout the area of the floor and roof, extending between layers a in the fioor and e in the roof, as best shown in the cross-sectional view. and in the detail views Figs and 8.

In the fixed construction the sides, ends, roof, and floor may be permanently framed together in any desired manner, and it does not appear necessary to show such fixedconstruction herein; but I will proceed to describe the construction wherein the parts may be detached for convenience in shipment and storage. In this construction the sides are detachably coupled with the floor by means of the hooks G on the floor, engaged by the plates or loops G on the sides, this construction serving to connect the sides and.

floor, and the sides and roof being connected by means of staple-plates H on the sides and H on the roof, which lap together and are secured by the padlocks H Any number of these fastenings may be provided at the bottom and top of the sides. I11 applying the sides they may be first engaged at G G with the fioor or bottom, and the roof may then be applied and secured in the manner described. The ends may now be applied in position and secured by padlocks J passed through staple-plates J and J, on, respectively, the sides and roof and ends of the portable jail.

Within the jail I provide upper bunks K and lower bunks L, arranged in longitudinal rows on opposite sides of a central aisle. These bunks are connected at their outer ends by hooks K and L with rods M and M, extending longitudinally of the side wall, so they may be swung up against the said side walls. The lower bunks, when lowered to position for use, are supported by the legs L from the floor, while the upper bunks are supported in position for use by the hangers K by which they are suspended from the roof.

In use the guards ordinarily occupy a tent pitched near to the rear end of the jail. It may be as shown in the diagrammatic View, and in cold weather I provide for heating the jail by the same fire that heats the guards tent, this being preferably effected by disposing the stovepipe end which extends from the guards tent through the jail within the aisle between the bunks, and usually about one and a half or two feet above the floor. To prevent the stovepipe from interfering with the movements of the door, I prefer to carry such pipe through the bars to one side of the door and then fit an elbow near the rear end wall, so the pipe can be conducted through the aisle, as shown.

\Vhere desired, the jail may be divided by cross-partitions, as indicated at N, Fig. 3, into separate compartments, so the occupants can be kept separated, and each of these partitions may be provided with doors under the control of the guard, as indicated at N in said figure.

In cold weather or otherwise, when desired, canvas sheets 0 may be provided and secured by hooks O to the sides and ends of the car to protect the prisoners.

The posts and bars forming the framing for the different sections may be of wood and suitably protected on their exposed surfaces by plates of metal.

By my invention I provide means for the safe keeping of convicts which can be conveniently transported from place to place, so the gang of convicts can be housed adjacent to their work. This enables a small force of guards to take a large gang of convicts many miles from the fixed stockade or barracks and house them at night or in bad weather right at the work, so no time will be lost in going to and from the work and so there will be no expense of building temporary barracks for their shelter.

The importance of theinvention can be best understood bya consideration of the convict problem, which is attracting so much attention at this time, particularly in the agricultural States, where much objection is made to the employment of convicts in competition with the so-called honest labor in agricultural pursuits, but where little or no opposition is made to their employment in road building and repairing and similar work. Manifestly their employment in such connection necessitates their going a considerable distance from the permanent jails or prisons or the location of such permanent jails in comparatively close proximity. My invention meets these peculiar conditions by providing means for housing the working gang of convicts which can be readilymoved from point to point and will at every location afford the desired protection for the convicts in such manner as to insure the retention of such convicts as is desired.

The portable jail may be readily hauled from place to place by a suitable team of mules or horses, and if it is not desired to frequently move the apparatus it will be understood that when it is desired to move from point to point arrangements for teams may be made with farmers or planters in the vicinity, thus avoiding the necessity of maintaining a team for each of the portable jails.

Where brakes are necessary, I arrange the brake-shoes P on hangers P to engage the rear wheels Q and operate such brakes by means of the shafts R, having threaded bearings at R, and crank-handles R by which they may be turned to set or release the brakes P when desired.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The herein described portable jail mounted on wheels having its inclosin g walls barred by interlaced slats united at the joints and having series of bunks substantially as described.

2. A portable jail comprising the floor, the roof, the sides, and the ends detachably connected, combined with means whereby they may be held together for use substantially as described.

3. A portable jail mounted on wheels and having barred inclosing walls and rows of bunks arranged on opposite sides of a central aisle, the end wall being provided witha door controlling communication with said aisle, substantially as described.

at. In a portable jail substantially as de= scribed the combination of the floor, the roof, the sides, and end walls, and the slatted-bar construction extending throughout the area of such floors, sides, end and roof substan= tially as described.

5. In a portable jail the combination with the jail having barred inclosing walls and series of bunks on opposite sides of a central aisle of a heating-pipe extending from Without the jail through the barred wall and thence along the said aisle and out through the opposite wall substantially as described.

6. In a jail construction substantially as described the combination of the floor or bottom having hooks, the upright wall having loops engaging said hooks, the roof, the staple plates on said roof and walls and the locks connecting said staple-plates substantially as described.

7. In a jail construction the combination of the floor or bottom having hooks the side walls and roof, the rear end wall having loops engaging the hooks of the bottom and stapleplates on said rear end wall and on the side walls and roof and locks securing the stapleplates of the end walls to those of the roof and side walls substantially as described.

8. In a jail construction the combination together the overlapping staple -plates substantially as described.

9. A portable jail provided with supporting-wheels with brakes for said wheels and with shafts having threaded bearings and connected with said brakes whereby to oper ate said brakes substantially as described.

WILEY SCARBOROUGH KING Witnesses:

" B. F. SMITH,

P. B. TURPIN. 

